Industrial Waste: Saving the Worst for Last?
Editors' Summary: RCRA reauthorization bills are currently moving through Congress. While RCRA Subtitle C provisions, addressing hazardous waste, continue to garner the lion's share of legislative attention, the author examines why Subtitle D provisions, dealing with solid waste; must be given greater attention and regulatory oversight. Specifically, the author focuses on industrial waste, which may represent as much as 94 percent of municipal, hazardous, and industrial wastes combined. The author explores the existing federal framework for industrial waste and looks at innovative state approaches. He analyzes current House and Senate RCRA reauthorization bills and how they could be written to best address four program goals: energy and materials conservation; environmental protection at waste management facilities; prompt and significant results; and genuine state and federal partnerships. The author concludes with suggestions for RCRA programs that could be used to implement these goals.